End of roaming charges
for travellers in the European Union:
how will the Commission make it work?
Dismantling roaming charges, when travellers call, send messages or surf on their mobile
devices while abroad, has been one of the biggest success stories in Europe. In the last mile
before the full end of roaming surcharges as of 15 June 2017, some more specific cases have
to be addressed.
WHAT IS «ROAM LIKE AT HOME»?
‣
«Roam
like at Home» is aimed at people who travel in the EU for work or leisure. They spend more
time at home than they do abroad, and they make most of their calls, texts and use data in their home
country.
This means that:
‣
‣
T ravellers can call, text and surf on their mobile devices when abroad in the EU for no extra charge than
the price they pay at home.
W
hen offering roaming, telecom operators operating in a given EU country must include a «Roam like at
Home» option in contracts they offer to people who live in that EU country.
WHAT DOES THE COMMISSION PROPOSE TO MAKE IT WORK?
‣
« Roam like at Home» is not meant to be used for permanent roaming.
‣ This is why the Commission wants to protect:
1
. the markets from abuses and distortions
2. and consumers from adverse effects of an increase in domestic prices
‣ For national packages, the Commission proposes specific solutions to protect consumers from possible
domestic price increases:
For pre- paid metered contracts: when
you go abroad, you can Roam like at
Home up the amount of credit remaining
for that month. For data, you can use a
volume equivalent to the value of your
remaining monthly credit at the wholesale
roaming data price cap (currently being
debated between the European Parliament
and Council).
Example: Zoran has a €20 pay per month and go (prepaid) contract for data, calls and texts. By the time he
goes for his holiday, Zoran has €13 credit remaining
on his card. Zoran can enjoy the value of his remaining
credit (€13) for the time he is away, with a volume of
data equivalent to the value of this credit (€13) (he
gets the equivalent of €13 worth at wholesale roaming
data price cap, i.e. 0.85 cent/MB, meaning more than
1.5 GB. In other words, Zoran gets in roaming the
volume he has paid for in terms of wholesale data cap.
or the most competitive contracts
F
that offer data at very low domestic
prices, below the wholesale cap: when
you go abroad you will continue to enjoy
your full allowance of calls and texts.
For data, you will have twice the volume
of data equivalent to the value of your
monthly contract in wholesale roaming
data price caps.
Example: with his €70 per month contract, Tim living
in Netherlands gets unlimited calls, texts and data for
his smartphone. When he travels abroad on holidays,
he will have unlimited calls and text. For data, he
will get twice the equivalent of €70 worth of data at
the wholesale roaming data price cap, i.e. 0.85 cent/
MB according to the Commission wholesale proposal,
meaning more than 16 GB in this case.
While roaming, he will get twice the volume he has
paid for.
HOW DOES THE COMMISSION PLAN TO PROTECT CONSUMERS AND MARKETS?
‣ Operators can ask the consumers to prove that they live or have stable links to a specific country before
including «Roam like at Home» in the contract.
‣ Operators can only use the information they already gather for billing purposes to check to what extent
customers are using mobile and data services abroad compared to their consumption at home.
‣ If, over a 4-month period, billing data suggests that a consumer has been more abroad than at home,
but also consumed more data while travelling in the EU, the operator can send a warning message.
T
his message will warn the consumers that they have two weeks to inform their operator about
their travel situation, or to change their travel or use patterns. Only a very small roaming charge (no
more than the wholesale roaming charges, currently debated between the European Parliament and
Council) can then be applied.